AL wants competitive polls: Nasim

Staff Correspondent
22 March, 2018 12:00 AM

Health and Family Welfare Minister Mohammad Nasim on Wednesday said the ruling Awami League (AL) wants to hold the upcoming general elections in a competitive manner with the participation of all political parties.

“We are working for holding a fair poll in the country…. We want a competitive election and we want to play it fairly. We won’t feel well by playing in the field alone. We want to hit six and hopefully Sheikh Hasina (prime minister) will hit six, this time,” he said.

The AL presidium member was addressing a programme at the National Press Club in the capital. Universal Medical College Research Center (UMRC), a wing of the Universal Medical College (UMC), arranged the programme to present the outcome of its research on Rohingya people’s health issues.

He said: “We hope that BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia will come out of jail through legal process to carry out her political activities. We all sincerely want her participation in the next parliamentary elections.”

Mentioning that BNP always blame the government for influencing the court and creating a barrier on the way to Khaleda’s bail, the AL leader said: “We never influenced the court.”

“After completing all legal procedures for 10 years, she (Khaleda) has been convicted. We are not pleased at her conviction. We don’t want conviction of any political leader,” he said.

Criticising appointment of British lawyer Lord Carlile as BNP chief Khaleda Zia’s counsel, Mohammad Nasim said that BNP had created a controversy by appointing the British lawyer who had tried to save the war criminals.

Mentioning Rohingya crisis, he said that Bangladesh won’t be able to provide aid to the displaced Rohingya people for long and urged the whole world to create pressure on Myanmar to take back their own people.